An Interview with Antoine Wilson

On this Lit Show, Antoine Wilson discusses his second novel, Panorama City (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), which Publisher’s Weekly called “fresh and flawlessly crafted as well as charmingly genuine” in a recent starred review.

Oppen Porter, bicycle enthusiast, lover of binoculars, is convinced he’s dying. On the night he thinks will be his last, the self-declared “slow absorber” records the story of his 40 days and nights in Panorama City, and his struggle to become a man of the world, for the edification of his unborn son. “The world operates according to a mysterious logic, Juan-Gorge,” Oppen says, “I want to illustrate some of its intricacies.”

In his short time outside his hometown of Madera, CA, Oppen navigates romance, heartbreak, religion, and difficult friendships with a winsome light-heartedness and, occasionally, an incisiveness that seems beyond his years. “I’m only twenty-eight years old,” Oppen tells his son. “When you get to be my age you’ll know how young that is.”

Antoine Wilson is a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. His first novel, The Interloper, was published by Other Press in 2007. He lives, surfs, and writes in Los Angeles.

Antoine Wilson will read from and discuss Panorama City in Prairie Lights Bookstore, Iowa City, IA, on October 9 at 7:00pm.